Why is ABC's 'Scandal' targeting Philly?

In January, the ABC drama killed its fictional president-elect in Fairmount Park. On Thursday, it did worse.

Published May 5, 2017, 6:49 p.m. ET

What did Philadelphia ever do to Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes?

Maybe it's the influence of one of her other TGIT shows, How to Get Away with Murder, which is set (but not filmed) in Philly, but the city's been taking a beating on Thursday nights this season.

"I'm curious. When was the last time you visited the City of Brotherly Love?" the terrorist known as Peus (David Warshofsky) asked D.C. fixer Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) in Thursday's episode, not long after he'd remotely detonated a bomb in Dallas.

"The United States is not going to bend to the will of a terrorist," Olivia told him, refusing to capitulate to a demand that involved his ongoing blackmail of former first lady Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young), who, more improbably every week, is still in the running to succeed her husband.

Moments later, as Scandal's current president, Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn), watched on a monitor, a drone detonated over Philadelphia. A news report soon followed of an explosion "a few miles from the 30th Street train station." (Maybe if producers spent more time here, they'd know that Liberty Place isn't quite that far.)

Twitter noticed the mayhem.

This isn't the first time this season that Scandal has messed with the city. In January, the show, whose executive producers include a Havertown native, actor and director Tom Verica, killed off its brand-new president elect, Frankie Vargas (Ricardo Chavira), during his election victory rally in Fairmount Park.